telecom

Nokia works with Tehran. So stamp on your mobile

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:16:16 +0200

In response to Nokia-Siemens' selling of phone-tapping services to the Iranian authorities, a group of protesters staged a demonstration during a gathering for human rights in Iran in Stockholm on Sunday. One of our Observers for Iran, Omid Habibinia alerted us to this video.

Emirates Blackberry users tricked into downloading spyware by "upgrading"

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:49:33 +0200

When 145,000 Blackberry users in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) received this message from operator Etisalat, the majority of them went ahead and downloaded the supposed upgrade. But what they had agreed to was more than just an "ultimate experience" - they had just opened access to all their messages.

Telecoms giant Etisalat sent the message at the beginning of July. It included an invitation to download a programme which would facilitate the handover between GSM and 3G networks. But users who downloaded the programme noticed it was slowing down their handsets and rapidly using up the battery, leading them to look into the details of the patch.

What they discovered was much worse than expected. The software was nothing more than spyware created by SS8 Network, a Californian company specialised in "lawful interception and surveillance solutions".

In a press release dated July 17 Canadian Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) made it clear that the programme was unofficial and offered guidelines to users in removing the application from their handsets. Etisalat however denied that it were spyware and brushed off the problems as the result of a "slight technical fault" for a minority of users when downloading updates. They refused to offer any further explanation, and as yet, reasons to why they encouraged users to install the spyware, and whether any private information was retrieved, remain unknown.

Fake iPhones: rip-off or innovation?

Team Observers — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:15:43 +0200

Photo: Julen on Flickr.

Counterfeit iPhones have become so sophisticated that from looks alone you can barely tell them apart from their genuine counterparts. You might be disappointed to unwrap one after an eBay purchase. Or not — as a counterfeit mobile specialist tells us, the rip-offs have many accessories that Apple itself hasn’t got round to adding to the real thing, and the fakes cost around three times less.

Back in 2007, fake iPhones hit the shelves even before the iPhone itself did. At the time, the toy-like gadgets were seen to be pretty amusing and certainly no competition to the real thing. Two years on, however, with the genuine product still not available on the Chinese market, it’s the counterfeiters who are laughing now.

Products like the HiPhone have become so widespread that an American eBay user found himself unwrapping one of the fakes. He sent the phone to the Apple-authorised repair shop MacMedics, who then diagnosed the product and posted the following examination on their YouTube channel.

What Obama's "spiritual adviser" really said

Julien — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:21:00 +0100

Since Barack Obama's close ties to black pastor Jeremiah Wright emerged in the mainstream media last week, comments deemed anti-patriotic and racist from the democratic candidate's "spiritual adviser" have dominated the news. See some of these infamous remarks straight from the horse's mouth, notably about September 11, along with viewpoints from our Observers on both Democrat and Republican fronts.